Solar System - Moon Topics

One longstanding mystery of the sun is why its outer atmosphere - the corona - is 200 times hotter than its surface. Now, a trio of scientists says it's because the corona is heated by a constant series of mini-explosions, called microflares.

Solar activity is picking up, but not as much as one team of scientists had predicted. "The sun is a variable object and there are going to be some ups and downs," says NASA's David Hathaway. One 'up' he doesn't expect is a large eruption predicted nowhere except in the rumor mill.

By comparing several techniques and combining aspects of a couple of the best, scientists better predict the Sun's weather. Solar Weatheraffects our weather, satellites in orbit, electrical power systems, and radio and television communications.

Lunar Prospector has survived the July 28 partial Lunar Eclipseand is on track for a planned collision with The Moonon July 31. This story includes a video clip of the eclipse as seen from Australia and new simulations of the July 31 impact.

This weekend sky watchers in North America will be treated to a rare naked-eye lunar occultation of a bright star. Astronomers are asking amateurs to video tape the event for a precision topographical survey of the Moon's limb

When Yogi Berra made his famous remark about "deja vu all over again," he probably didn't have solar eruptions in mind. But this week solar physicists did a double take, and then a triple take, as the sun produced a rapid-fire series of coronal mass ejections. Even Yogi would have been impressed.